Sunday, 28 May 2017

Nant Hir

I visited the Tir Mawr y Dderi Hir SSSI today and was chuffed to see my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year, right by the Nant Hir.
The damp grassland at the north of the SSSI had loads of the large and striking froghopper Cercopis vulnerata.



Earlier in the visit, while trying to photograph this spectacular Cardinal Beetle, I discovered that my macro lens has developed a serious fault and will only focus between 30 and 70cm. Happy days!

The Black-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa coccinea)




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7 comments:

  1. Phil Hill29 May 2017 at 07:16

    Nice photos Mark, hope you can sort out your lens shortly.

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  2. M.Bevan29 May 2017 at 07:25

    Nice photos Mark and you are not having much luck with your lenses and black and red froghopppers same to be very local in the valley.

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  3. Mark Evans29 May 2017 at 09:44

    Thanks for the compliments. I was cursing that lens as I was trying to photograph the beetle. I was struggling so much, I was only giving the beetle half my attention.
    I am convinced that it is my camera bag which is to blame. Why they put such thin padding in the base is beyond me. I haven't dropped the bag, but have sometimes put it down more heavily than intended and I've heard the thus as the ends of the lenses make contact. I guess this is cumulative damage, which has by coincidence come to a head in the two lenses a week apart from one another. The macro is still usable and will have to wait until I can afford to have it repaired.

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  4. Michael Hogan29 May 2017 at 19:17

    Good work again Mark, sorry to hear about the lens. If you had a Canon body you could borrow my 100mm.

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    Replies
    1. Mark Evans29 May 2017 at 21:52

      Thanks for the thought, Mike. I'll no doubt get by, but I couldn't believe my luck when the second lens in a week suffered more or less the same fault. Ah well.
      I ran the garden trap last night and had a fairly decent catch, which included Diamond-back, Turnip Moth, Pale Mottled Willow and Silver Y.

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    2. Michael Hogan30 May 2017 at 00:15

      I'm having a slow year moth-wise I'm afraid, best I've had in the last couple of days is argyresthia trifasciata my 2nd garden record, probably attracted by my neighbours leyandii. Both numbers and diversity seem to be down.

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    3. Mark Evans30 May 2017 at 07:40

      It's been very quiet here too, but picked up a bit, on the weekend. Nice to get a whiff of migration, associated with the winds that came up from southern Europe with those storms.

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